Boko Haram Takfiri militants have launched a fresh attack on northeast Nigeria’ Borno state, killing a number of people and destroying dozens of houses.

A vigilante and the army said on Sunday that the attack took place when the terror group stormed the town of Gubio, 95 kilometers (60 miles) by road north of the state capital, Maiduguri, on Saturday night.

“Boko Haram invaded our town last night and killed many of our people and burnt more than half of the town,” resident Babor Kachalla said, adding that the militants “overpowered the soldiers guarding the town.”

Another citizen of the town said the terrorists pulled back six hours later. “We stayed in the bush from where we could hear sounds of guns up to 3:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) when the shooting stopped, but we could see fire from all over the town," he added.

Meanwhile, an unnamed military officer in Maiduguri noted that reinforcements pushed the militants out of the town, which was also targeted by Boko Haram in November 2014.

The officer said that Nigerian forces inflicted heavy causalities on the extremist group that in turn “inflicted large-scale damage on the town as half of it was burnt with rockets fired by the terrorists.”

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls parts of northeastern Nigeria. Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria are the four African countries that have been directly affected by the growing threat of Boko Haram in recent months.

The terror group says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of the country since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far left about 15,000 people dead and displaced about 1.5 million others.